


Spelling Bee

by HutchIsGorgeous



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:13:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29589129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HutchIsGorgeous/pseuds/HutchIsGorgeous
Summary: Hutch has more than one problem with his life right now. Can Starsky fix them?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Spelling Bee

Not that Arlene (acmabry) didn't do a good job beta-reading the original version of this story and I posted on another fanfiction website in 2018. However, in late 2020 and early 2021, I made a lot of changes to it. What I think is the original version immediately follows this revised one.

Note that not everything in this story is medically accurate.

Reviews are very much appreciated!

P.S. "To be or Not to Be" is the story title I wanted to use, but the other website wouldn't let me use it, although I don't know why.

"Spelling Bee"

It was a summer day in 1981, and Hutch and Starsky had just finished eating a wonderful lunch at the beach. Starsky walked about fifteen feet away from him and began fiddling with a stone he'd bent over and picked up. Hutch reached inside the ice cooler for another can of refreshing Coke. He took a big swig of the cool drink. Then, continuing to sit in a wheelchair, was admiring the breathtaking sky.

Both men had not seen what had just gone into Hutch's Coke can and when he took another sip out of it **,** he dropped the can yelling, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!". Which of course, brought Starsky quickly to his side to find out what was wrong with his partner and best friend.

Over a year ago Hutch had shaved off his mustache and had his hair cut so that it looked much like it had when he'd first set eyes on Anna Akhanatova . The blond normally had the good looks of a California beach boy, but not now with a mouth swollen four times its normal size. Then, suddenly a yellow jacket flew out of the can. Apparently, having had enough of the Coke and Hutch's yelling.

Hutch knew the difference between a bee and a yellow jacket. A yellow jacket is more aggressive at getting what it is after. Besides that, most reported 'bee stings' may actually be yellow jackets like the one which had stung his lips multiple times. A bee could only sting a person once.

Oh yes, Hutch knew all about bees, yellow jackets, and wasps. Last year he was walking across a K-Mart department store parking lot when a wasp flew in front of him and stung him underneath his right eye. Also, he would never forget the bumblebee hot after his aftershave that had stung him in the rear end when Starsky and he were hiding behind some outdoor greenery, trying to bust Amboy.

At the beach, he was holding both hands to his extremely achy and throbbing mouth. Starsky had to pry his hands off it, which wasn't an easy task. When the brunet did get them off, he held the ice there that he had put in a washcloth. But after a while took it off to check on things.

Unfortunately, the ice hadn't made the swelling from the yellow jacket's stings go down much and Starsky insisted he was taking Hutch to the closest ER. That would be the same one he had taken Hutch to when a week ago Hutch had left his place with no shoes and socks on because he liked the summer's cooler night air on his feet.

Although, that very dark evening it was awfully stupid of him to not have a flashlight with him and turned on because if he had, he would've seen in the grass the pile of broken glass and not stepped in it!

He sure didn't like the pain from the cuts he had got on the bottom of his feet and the stitches he had to get! Neither did he like that to keep Starsky from having to take him somewhere besides the hospital's pharmacy to rent the wheelchair and as long as he needed it, he'd had to talk on the phone with a customer service representative for his medical insurance company who kept insisting the policy number he'd given her wasn't in the computer. She did eventually find it…

At the hospital, this time, Starsky and Hutch were informed by the ER doctor that yellow jackets can cause a severe allergic reaction. Even a fatal one, but that would take an awful lot of venom to kill someone. So, Hutch was given an allergy shot to combat any lesser reactions he might have from the stings. _Why couldn't the painkiller shot in my butt have come first? Then the allergy shot in it wouldn't have hurt! Why was it given it in my butt instead of my arm anyway? No matter where they're given, are they even supposed to hurt?_

##########################################################################

Back at his Venice Place apartment, the painkiller shot, for some odd reason, still wasn't working for any of his mouth pain, and because a yellow jacket and a bee are both yellow and black, it would be some time before anything with a 'b' in it wouldn't make him groan. Starsky then handed him a book to take his mind off his problems. Hutch gave him a pained look because the one Starsky gave him was _Hamlet_ , with the famous line: "To be or not to be? That is the question."

Hutch read the book anyway. Later he was still sitting on the couch and turning on the TV, the show "Andy Griffith" was on. The first character he saw was Aunt Bea. Hutch groaned at that too and fell on his side on the couch because with her name pronounced Bee, it reminded him that his lips were still quite swollen, had turned bluish-red with bruising, and that he couldn't talk! (Not that he needed the reminding!)

Additionally, what was he to do about the spelling bee at Westridge High School tomorrow morning? It was a competition between whichever adult each student had chosen to participate in, and Kiko had picked Hutch, and one of the really long words he needed some more practice on how to spell so happened to start with 'b'.

Pete/Molly went to a high school not too far away but had before and after-school activities more to her liking.

"Do you know how bee-u-ti-ful you are when you're thinking so hard, Blondie?" Starsky, standing near Hutch, jokingly remarked.

He couldn't tell Starsky off with words, but there were other ways to do it. Although Hutch wasn't thinking and used the bottom of his stitched up right foot, and with no shoe or sock on, to kick Starsky's right leg. Not hard enough to hurt the brunet. It was hard enough that although Hutch had sat back up after the Aunt Bea thing, he was doubled over in agony from kicking him.

To Hutch's deep regret, he still had four more hours to go before it was safe to take a few narcotic pain pills the ER doc, who had sutured his feet, had given him a prescription of a full bottle for. Thinking the two pills might also work for the pain in his lips, he knew if he went ahead and took the medicine right now, he could experience unwanted side effects. Some of them the pupils of his eyes constricting so they looked like pinpoints, severe dizziness, and a case of the shakes, the same or worse than the ones he had when he was going through withdrawal from heroin!

"Sorry, buddy! I'm bad for teasing you," Starsky, worried about Hutch, apologized. "Here. Let me straighten you up, then I'll massage your neck just how you like it."

Hutch thought Starsky kneading his neck with his hands 'did' feel good, but he was still knotted up some. Worrying about how he was supposed to practice some more for the spelling bee when he couldn't talk. He finally came up with a solution to the problem and pointed to some masking tape and a Sharpie pen on the kitchen counter.

"What do you want them for?" Starsky inquired.

Just to be cute, Hutch pointed at the bottom of his also bare 'left' foot.

Starsky took him seriously and replied, "I'm not going to put any masking tape on it, dummy, and signing my autograph. Even if I did, when I pull off the tape, I might pull out your stitches. Besides, any leftover adhesive from the tape might give your foot an infection. You **-** make that 'we' -don't want that to happen! It would require taking you to the ER again and, I'm tellin' you, pal, I'm tired of taking you there! Sometimes you're a lousy patient and get all whiny on me! 'Member the time I was taking you to the ER and out of the blue, you whined if you ever had to go live in a nursing home, please don't take you to one that smelled like urine? Worse, remember the time you cut your hand trying to go over the fence trying to catch that punk who had snatched Linda Baylor's purse? That was the time Diana Harmon ended up as your ER nurse. Before she came into your treatment room, you whined to me about your hand, that the doctor hardly even looked at it. That you just can't get personal service in a hospital anymore. But Hutch, your hand only required five stitches!"

Hutch then bowed his head in shame he had put himself over those in worse shape. That didn't mean he still didn't need the masking tape and the Sharpie pen with black ink. Lifting his head, and growing impatient, trying to tell Starsky with his hands why he needed them-The two men were well-known for their ability to easily communicate with each other, but with that ability out of whack for the time being, Hutch was frustrated about it.

"Sigh," he murmured.

It must've not been loud enough-

"What's that you said, Blintz?" Starsky asked.

"Sigh."

"Hey, you're talking better, but is that the only word you can say?"

It would hurt his mouth if he talked anymore, he just nodded at him.

##################################################################################

When Hutch got home from the ER, after cutting his feet on the pile of broken glass, it had taken both Starsky and Huggy to carry him up the stairs and inside his abode. Starsky had rung Huggy from the hospital to ask for his help. The following day Venice Place had a stair lift installed, courtesy of the owners of Chez Helene's restaurant.

Finally, Hutch got the masking tape and the Sharpie pen from Starsky and wheeled himself to his piano. It would've been easier if Starsky had pushed him to it because even though Hutch was great at sports, getting around his fairly small apartment in the chair he was klutzy and crashed into things. Starsky often scolded him about it and told him a time or two that when he could drive his Galaxie again, he hoped he could do it better than the chair.

Now Hutch tore off a piece of tape and stuck it on one of his piano's white keys, and with the Sharpie pen wrote on the piece of tape an A. Tearing off another piece, and sticking it on the next white key, he wrote on that piece of tape an a.

By the time he was through, there was a piece of tape on a total of 52 of the white keys, and in black ink all the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case.

Then, thinking again about his still very sore, swollen, and bruised lips (and all due to that bee-looking yellow jacket stinging them multiple times!) it was impossible to ignore the fact 'alphabet' had a 'b' in it. That the piano had B keys. Releasing yet another groan, he took his right index finger and pressed the white key with a f on the piece of tape. Doing the same on a white key with a l…He got as far as floccinaucinih when practicing some more with how to spell floccinaucinihilipilification.

Hutchinson wasn't expecting to have a case of stage fright at the spelling bee, but not wanting to chance that he would, he also had realized he didn't get the fright when he could play a guitar or piano and didn't have to sing. At the bee, he wouldn't be singing, and neither would anyone else.

The guitar… it didn't have enough stings to put enough pieces of tape on and write the upper- and lower-case letters to be able to play out whatever words he was given to spell. But the school's piano sure would have enough white keys he could put tape on and use the Sharpie to write on the pieces of tape the letters!

Taking an afternoon nap, when Hutch woke up, the sun was still shining. Although thinking it was evening, he thought it was okay to pick up off the bedside end table two of his pain pills and gulped them down with water in a plastic cup. As a result of the accidental overdose, it wasn't too long until he was experiencing bad side effects!

Still in the bed, he agitatedly flung out his left arm and hitting his end table's lamp, it flew through the air. Gravity soon brought it down on the floor. The noise of the lamp's clear glass base breaking woke Starsky, who was on the couch, out of his deep sleep.

It wouldn't do Hutch any good if while running over to him, the brunet had been in such a hurry he'd cut his bare feet on the shattered base.

At least the swelling of Hutch's mouth had gone down temporarily to tell Starsky, "So dizzy! Roo...roo… room keeps spinnin' around. And th…th…these these these these these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes shakes shakes are wo…wo…worse worse worse worse worse than when I was co…co…coming coming coming coming coming… off Horse."

Starsky sat beside him and held him. "Poor, baby!" he exclaimed, wrapping a blanket around Hutch.

Five minutes had passed, and Hutch wasn't getting any better.

"Have to leave you for a sec and call an ambulance to take you to the hospital," Then Starsky quickly added, "Don't worry. I'm comin' with ya."

"Wish these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes would st…st…stop stop stop stop! And the the the dizziness! Can't tell if I'm sitting upright upright upright in this bed or upside down! Anyway, while we're at the hos…hos…hospital… hospital get me a pi…pi…piano piano piano piano! S some masking tape an…an…and and and and a Sharpie pen. I'll prac..prac…practice some more there on those really long spelling words!"

"You don't think you're still going to that spelling bee tomorrow morning, do ya!?" screeched Starsky.

"Yessssssssss a yessssssssss!"

"Forget it, buddy. Ain't happening"

"Bu…bu…but But but but but Starsk!"

"Quiet now. I still have to make a phone call to get us an ambulance."

Inside the vehicle, Hutch was intermittently given oxygen while Starsky was holding his hand and trying to comfort the blond with his woes.

Not able to do so, Starsky spurted out, "Alright, then, spell receive for me."

" REVIVE," Hutch replied.

"You've already flunked the first word, buddy!"

"One one one one more more more more mo…mo…more word please please pl…pl…please! For Kiko's sake sake."

"Can I have another blanket for my buddy here? His shakes haven't gone away yet," Starsky told the paramedic with tattoos.

"Those two pills he took too early are taxing his central nervous system and that's the reason for his shakes. That, and taking them too early is what's made his core body temperature drop."

Starsky already knew everything the man had told him but didn't inform him of that as he was too busy placing the blanket he'd been handed on Hutch. When it was shortly afterward Hutch stubbornly insisted that he give him another word to spell, so he gave him cantaloupe.

"Cantolope"

"You got that one wrong, too. Sorry, pal."

Hutch looked sorely disappointed, and still shaking, stuttered, "I know know know kn…kn…know what! Tell me how to spell you…your...your…last name. -I'm I'm sure to get it right! Now, if this…this… ambulance will stop spinning round and round and round and round and I'll…warm…up… to do that!"

About four minutes later, the dizziness and the chills temporarily let up. "I got the spelling of it right. Didn't I? Didn't I?" Hutch looked at Starsky with pride he'd got it right, but still wanted Starsky's assurances he had got the spelling of his best friend's last name correct.

#######################################################################################

Hutch had been able to see okay, but now his pinpointed pupils made everything look very blurry. By the time they got to the hospital, he also was overly sleepy from taking the pills too early. Not enough to go into a coma, but his ER doctor, Sanders, decided he could better treat Hutch if he was wide awake. It wasn't a good time to try to get Hutch to drink something with caffeine, as it would be too stimulating and cause him to have feelings of extreme nervousness. Instead, Sanders had Starsky briskly rub the blond's arms and do some other things to him to bring him out of his grogginess.

Four hours later Sanders said it was fine to take Hutch home. He had to continue to stay off his feet until his regular doctor took the stitches out the day after tomorrow. In the ER treatment room, he was picked up and put in a wheelchair that one of the nurses had brought in for him to borrow free of charge providing that someone returned it before midnight.

"If no one does will it turn into a pumpkin?" Starsky quipped. She didn't think it was funny. "I'll have Huggy bring it back before then."

################################################################################

Hutch's lips weren't nearly as swollen as they had been but were still too bruised and sore to do any more talking for at least 24 more hours, and all because of that bee-Um, yellow jacket! At the beach! The side effects from taking the two pills too early hadn't been fun and he vowed to himself he'd never again take any kind of painkiller. Not even a baby aspirin!

Starsky wanted chocolate cupcakes and pushed him in the wheelchair out of the treatment room and down a hall to the only vending machine that had them. Hutch wasn't hungry but he was in the mood to do some more practicing on how to spell floccinaucinihilipilification. Also, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which ironically is a fear of long words.

Starsky wouldn't need to look far to find him a piano when there was one right around the corner. Now if only he had some masking tape and a Sharpie pen! Remembering that Starsk had the two items on him, Hutch was eyeing the blue windbreaker's side pockets. Starsky reached into the pockets and pulled out what Hutch wanted.

"Okay, Hutch! Okay! Here's your masking tape and pen! Are you happy now!?"

Hutch vigorously nodded he was and then smiled that Starsky had chocolate frosting on the end of his nose.

#####################################################################

No participant at the spelling bee was allowed to use any kind of pen and paper to write out the words they were given. In the morning in the school's auditorium, before the spelling bee began, the principal explained to everyone, including Kiko, what Starsky had told him had happened to Hutch's lips so that he couldn't talk. Also, saying Hutch would use the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet on the pieces of tape on the piano's white keys to play out the spelling words he was given, and that one of the spelling bee's judges would tell everyone if he had gotten the spelling right.

No one argued that Hutch couldn't take part in the spelling bee that way. Ironically, one of the short words he was given so happened to be 'bee' as in 'spelling bee,' and as in the insect.

He had also been given, 'yellow jacket' and he spelled it yellowjacket, which was also correct. Then when it was his turn again, he was given Galaxie as in Ford Galaxie.

The words got harder, and harder, and even harder for the participants to spell. Even so, Hutch not only got every word he was given right (including the one that started with a b- butylaminobenzyldimethylminoethanol) he got first place in the competition and received a lot of applause from those in the auditorium, including of course Kiko and Starsky. Starsky pushed Hutch in his wheelchair to where he needed to be to receive his award trophy.

Afterward, at the school's outdoor picnic, Hutch reached into an ice cooler and got himself a root beer. Opening the can, he was admiring the breathtaking sky. Then, before he took a drink of the soda, he looked in the can to make sure there were no yellow jackets or bees in it. Or wasps. Or anything else with a stinger that could hurt him!

Not having seen any insects in the can of root beer and thinking it was safe to take a drink out of it , to do that he partially removed the can from his lips. Wouldn't you know it! A yellow jacket then slipped in between the can and his lips and stung his lips in multiple places!

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" he cried out! Swatting at the detestable thing, trying to get it to leave him alone. Starsky and he were off duty, but it was still their job to protect innocent people from man and beast. Hutch couldn't see the yellow jacket anymore but could hear it buzzing around. No doubt sending a message to other yellow jackets to come join in stinging 'not' the others at the picnic, but him 'only' and sting his arms and legs too!

Before the yellow jackets could get to him though, a young boy exclaimed, "Here's some Raid insect repellent, Mister!" and handed Starsky the aerosol can, and he sprayed Hutch down. Hutch was now soaking wet with the stuff and would require yet another trip to the hospital to get the Raid off his skin, so he didn't have any allergic reactions to the chemicals in it or from the one yellow jacket that had stung his lips at the picnic before the Raid had been sprayed on him. (The End)

_P.S. It's too hard to try to explain here all about the word butylaminobenzyldimethylminoethanol. If you want, go to Ask .com (no space between the k and c) and put butylaminobenzyldimethylminoethanol in the search box._

Now what I think is the original version of the story:

A day in the summer and Hutch and Starsky had just finished eating a wonderful lunch at the beach. Hutch reached inside the ice cooler for another can of refreshing Coke. He took a big swig of the cool drink. Then, sitting in a wheelchair, turned around to take another look at the breathtaking sunset, before it totally disappeared for that day.

Both men had not seen what had just gone into Hutch's can of Coke and when he took another sip of it he dropped the can yelling, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Which of course brought Starsky immediately to his side to find out what was wrong with his partner and best friend.

The blond normally had the good looks of a California beach boy, but now a cop whose mouth had swollen four times its normal size. A yellow jacket then flew out of the can. Apparently having had enough of the Coke and enough of Hutch's yelling.

He knew the difference between a bee and a yellow jacket. For one thing, a yellow jacket was more aggressive at getting what it was after. Besides that, most reported 'bee stings' may actually be yellow jackets like the one which had stung him multiple times. A bee could only sting a person one time.

Yellow jackets can also cause a severe allergic reaction. A fatal one too, but that would take an awful lot of venom to kill him. Still, Hutch was holding both hands to his extremely achy and throbbing mouth.

Starsky had run immediately to his side with some ice from the cooler, the ice in a clean washcloth. For the ice to do any good at all, first he had to pry both of Hutch's hands off his mouth so afterwards the brunet could hold the washcloth on it.

Unfortunately, the ice wasn't making the swelling go down much and Starsk insisted they were going to the closest hospital's emergency room. That would be the same ER he had taken Hutch to when just last week he'd stepped barefoot on broken glass and needed stitches in both of his feet. Right now he was getting around by Starsky pushing him in a wheelchair.

At the hospital Hutch was given a shot of an anti-allergy injection in his bare butt, which he hadn't liked at all because it made it sore. He then was given a shot of a painkiller. "Why couldn't the painkiller have come first, then the anti-allergy shot wouldn't have hurt." Hutch thought.

At the hospital even with the painkiller his mouth was still sore and swollen, and he had an extremely hard time talking.

It would be awhile before anything with a 'b' in it wouldn't make him groan.

When they got home, Starsky handed Hutch a book to take Hutch's mind off his problems. Hutch gave him a pained withering look because the book Starsky gave him was Hamlet, with the famous line: "To be or not to be? That is the question."

Hutch read the book anyway. Later he turned on the TV and the show "Andy Griffith" was on. The first person he saw on the TV was the character Aunt Bea. Hutch groaned at that too. Falling on his side on the couch because with her name pronounced like Bee, she reminded him he had a sore mouth and couldn't talk.

Additionally, what was he to do about the spelling bee Kiko's school was hosting tomorrow morning on Tuesday? It was a competition between whichever adult each child had chosen to participate in, and Hutch still had some words he needed to brush up on how to spell. One of them a long word that started with 'b'.

"Do you know how bee-u-ti-ful you are when you're thinking so hard, Blondie?" Hutch's mouth was still too achy to tell Starsky off with words, but he had other ways to do it. He gave the brunet a small kick to his right leg and in doing so, had forgotten about the stitches in his right bare foot. He had been back to sitting up. No longer lying on his side from the Aunt Bea thing. But now doubling over at the waist and in pain from kicking Starsk, still had four more hours to go before it was safe to take more pain pills for the stitches. If he went ahead and took them now, he could experience some unwanted side effects. Like dizziness and a case of the shakes, the same or worse than when he was going through withdrawal from heroin.

"Sorry, buddy! I'm bad for teasing you with the bee-u-u-ti-ful" Starsky apologized. "Here. Let me help you sit back up, then I'll massage your neck and just how you like it."

The massage felt good, but he was still knotted up some. Worrying about how he was supposed to practice for the spelling bee when he couldn't talk. He knew some America sign language and had gotten better at it, but if he was hurting at the spelling bee, any sign language at all and his natural stage fright would get in the way of him spelling the words he was given right.

Hutch finally came up with a solution. He realized he didn't seem to get stage fright so bad when he could play his guitar or piano and didn't have to sing. Hutch wouldn't be singing, he'd be participating in a spelling bee and the guitar didn't have many strings to come up with all the letters in the alphabet, but a piano sure did and then some. Motioning with his hands to get Starsky's attention, Hutch pointed to some masking tape and a Sharpie pen on the kitchen counter.

"What do you want them for?" Starsky inquired.

Just to be a smart aleck, Hutch pointed to one of his bad feet.

Starsky took him seriously, replying, "I'm not going to put any masking tape on your foot dummy and signing my autograph on it. The tape might pull out your stitches too when I pull the tape off. Plus, with the adhesive on the tape you have a chance of getting a bad infection. Plus you….make that 'we' don't want that to happen! Would require taking you to the ER again and I'll tell you pal, I'm tired of taking you there! Sometimes you make a bad patient and get all whiny on me! Remember the time I was taking you to the ER and out of the blue you whined to me if you ever had to go live in a nursing home to please don't take you to the one that smelled like urine? Worse yet, remember the time you got a small cut on your hand trying to go over the fence to catch a criminal? That was the time Diana Harmon ended up being your nurse. But before she came in your treatment room, what did you do but complain to me because the doctor hardly spent any time with you even though your hand only required five stitches.

Hutch bowed his head in shame that he had put his well-being over others in worse shape than him, but that didn't mean he didn't now need the masking tape and the Sharpie pen to do something with his piano. Having grown inpatient, trying to tell Starsky with his hands how come he needed the tape and pen was fruitless. Guess they were having one of their days when they couldn't read one another's minds so well.

"Sigh."

"What's that you said, Blintz?"

"Sigh"

"Hey you're talking better, but is the only word you can say right now is "Sigh"?

Hutch was capable of rolling the wheelchair over to where he needed it to go, just would've been easier if Starsky had maneuvered him to where he was trying to get to in his Venice Place apartment. When he'd cut his feet, it took Starsky and Huggy to carry him up the stairs and inside his abode. Since then, an elevator had been installed. Courtesy of the owners of the restaurant downstairs.

Hutch was great at sports, but pushing his wheelchair around his apartment he was quite klutzy at and crashed into things. Starsky had chided, it was a good thing when he was ready to drive his Ford Galaxie again, he would do it better than the wheelchair!

Finally, Hutch got the masking tape and the Sharpie pen. Tearing off pieces of tape, he got Starsky to push him in the wheelchair to his piano. Placing the pieces of tape on the white keys only, he wrote on one piece of tape a letter of the alphabet. Continued doing so until all the alphabet was there, not able to ignore the fact that the word 'alphabet' had a b in it or that the piano had B keys. He groaned, thinking of his still very sore lip. But now practicing how to spell some words on his piano with the tape with the letters on it. He would participate in the spelling bee tomorrow using the school's piano and some tape and a Sharpie pen. Couldn't use a piece of paper and the pen because it wouldn't be as challenging to get the words right.

Taking an afternoon nap, nighttime came, but the sun was still out and Hutch became confused whether it was morning or evening. As a result, he took two of his pain pills and too early! Soon he got very dizzy and got a terrible case of the shakes!

Starsky was asleep on Hutch's couch when he heard a glass lamp break in Hutch's bedroom. Running to the room, as he made his way to him, he was careful not to cut his own bare feet on the shards of glass.

Temporarily the swelling of Hutch's mouth had gone down, and he told Starsky, "So dizzy! Room's spinning round and round and round and round. And th…th…these these these these these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes shakes shakes are wo…wo…worse worse worse worse worse than when I was co…co…coming coming coming coming coming off of Horse."

Starsky went and sat on Hutch's bed and held him. Wrapping a blanket around him. "Poor baby!"

Ten minutes had passed, and Hutch wasn't getting any better. "Now I have to leave you for a sec and call an ambulance to take you, I mean 'us' to the hospital so you can be treated."

"Wish these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes would st…st…stop stop stop stop! And the the the dizziness! Can't tell if I'm sitting uprightupright upright or upside down! Starsky while we're in the hos…hos…hospital hospital hospital get me a pi…pi…piano piano piano piano! , S some masking tape an…an…and and and and a Sharpie pen."

"You don't think you're still going to that spelling bee at Kiko's school, do you!?

"Yessssssssss a yessssssssss!"

"Forget it, buddy. Ain't happening"

"Bu…bu…but But but but but Starsk!"

"Quiet now. I still have to make a phone call to get us an ambulance."

Inside the vehicle, Hutch received some oxygen and a had another warm blanket placed on him. Still persistent about going to the spelling bee, Starsky was holding his hand and trying to comfort the blond one who still had the shakes and the dizziness.

"Alright, then. Spell receive for me. "

" REVIVE" Hutch answered.

"You've already flunked the first word, buddy!"

"One one one one more more more more mo…mo…more word please pleasepl…pl…please!. For Kiko's sake sake."

"Can I have another blanket for my buddy here?" Starsky asked a paramedic. His shakes haven't gone away yet," he explained.

After Starsky placed it over him, Hutch insisted he give him another word to spell. The word he gave Hutch was cantaloupe.

Hutch spelled it cantolope.

"You spelled that one wrong too. Sorry, pal."

Hutch looked sorely disappointed. "I know know know kn…kn…know what word I'll get right! Tell me how to spell your last name. I'm I'm I'm sure to get it right if this ambulance would stop spinning round and round and round and round!

Hutch spelled it "Starsky."

"See there? I got it right. Didn't I? Didn't I?" Hutch looked at Starsky with pride he'd got it right, but still wanted Starsky's assurances he had got the spelling of his best friend's last name correct.

Done being treated in the ER, Hutch saw a piano in the hallway and pointed. Now only if he had some masking tape and a Sharpie pen to practice some more for the spelling bee taking place tomorrow morning.

His lip had gone back to being too sore to talk anymore, and all because of that bee….Um, yellow jacket! At the beach!

"Okay, Hutch! Okay! Here's your masking tape and pen right here! Are you happy now?"!

Hutch shook his head vigorously that he was very thrilled about it, even though Starsky had got the items out of his blue windbreaker jacket. He wouldn't have had a problem with it, but there was the word 'jacket'' again.

After the tape and the alphabet had been put on the white keys of the hospital's piano, Hutch got every word that Starsky gave him correct. That included the long word he'd been having trouble with that began with the letter 'b'.

In the morning at the school, before the Spelling Bee began, the principal explained to everyone what had happened to make Hutch's lip swollen and asked them if they minded if he used a piano and the masking tape with letters on it to type out on the piano the spelling of each word he was given.

Everyone was in agreement he could, and the spelling bee began.

Included in the words he was given was bee.

Another was yellow jacket.

Then was given the word Galaxie as in Ford Galaxie.

Then the words got harder and harder to spell.

But, he ended up First place in the competition and with a big applause from those in the spelling bee auditorium, including Kiko, Starsky pushed Hutch up on stage in his wheelchair to receive his award.

Afterwards, at the school's outdoor picnic, Hutch reached into a cooler and got himself a root beer. Opening the can and setting it down, and turning away from the can to look at the beautiful sky, before he took a drink of the soda, he looked in the can to make sure there were no yellow jackets or bees in it. Or wasps.. Anything with a stinger that could hurt him inside there!

Speaking of wasps, last year he was walking across a K-Mart department store parking lot when a wasp flew in front of him, then stung him underneath his right eye. Also, he would never forget the bumble bee hot after his aftershave and stung him when Starsky and he were trying to bust Amboy.

It was safe to take a drink of his root beer and doing so, partially removed the can from his lips. Wouldn't you know it! A yellow jacket slipped in between them and stung his lips in several places!

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" he cried! Swatting at the yellow jacket to try to get it to leave him alone. Starsky and he were off duty, but it was still their job to protect innocent people from man or beast or both.

But Hutch couldn't see the yellow jacket anymore, but could hear it buzzing around. No doubt sending a message to other yellow jackets to come join in stinging not the others at the picnic, but him!

"Here's a can of Raid insect repellent, Mister!" a young boy handed Starsky the can and he sprayed Hutch down. Hutch was now soaking wet with the stuff and would require yet another trip to the hospital to take care of the stings and to get the Raid off his skin so he didn't have any allergic reaction to the chemicals in it!


End file.
